Difficult Situation

Tom,

As a coach who has no children, my first instinct was to think "I am glad this guy's kid isn't on my team" because I do not like having to deal with extra baggage (i.e. parents).

But! after thinking about it I have been in your shoes. Sort of. I know my players great and one of my objectives is to get to know the kids to better understand how to coach them. So when all-star time came I made a point to go watch them play on their respective teams. I had three boys on an 11-12 team and none liked the coach. He was one of those that only gave opportunity to the kids that played for him or his friends kids. He wasn't much on coaching either so the kids really weren't learning anything. Point is after a couple of games the kids were coming over to me asking me what they were doing wrong with their swing, where the should play defensively against certain teams, etc. I ended up giving them signs too, thinking "man if I were the coach of this team I would really hate me!" But it was just something I felt I had to do for the kids.

BTW I would probably just ask you to coach with me, so maybe you should just ask to help like Dave (I think) suggested